The End of Omar Lucio III
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| Sheriff Omar Lucio |
As I previously stated, the broken laws and constitutional violations detailed in this most recent report have been an ongoing issue for well over a decade during Lucio’s time in office. People were filing grievances about the very same things over a decade ago when I was in custody there.
Lucio first tried to blame his uneducated and untrained employees for these faults, which no doubt led to political backlash from the Deputies Union that includes jailers and thus, the reason for his flip-flop. Just very quickly, before addressing his latest excuse, allow me to say that it is very cowardly and unethical to blame employees for not being properly trained when it is his duty and responsibility to educate and train them on these matters. Also, it is Lucio’s duty to ensure that the supervisors he has promoted have not only qualified for those positions by knowing and doing their jobs in accordance with the law, but are also making sure their subordinates are doing the same.
Now, my fellow citizens of Cameron County, Lucio attempts to shift blame from his employees to the TCJS Inspectors. Lucio wants you to believe that it is not his fault the jail has consistently failed to MEET MINIMUM STANDARDS, but rather that it is the fault of those inspectors for simply doing their job in accordance to the law.
To blame a TCJS Inspector for pointing out violations is akin to blaming a CPS Inspector for reporting different forms of Child Abuse. Lucio’s sorry excuses are neither justifiable nor are they reasonable. So if one CPS Inspector finds a parent had malnourished a child, but 30 days later a different inspector finds that the same parent had fed the child adequately, but was now beating the child; would our courts or society find the parent had done no wrong because the second inspector found a different form of child abuse than what was originally reported? Of course not!
Sorry, but that just doesn’t cut it. First of all, the report plainly showed jailers were not only NOT CONDUCTING the face-to-face observations of inmates as required by Texas Law, but they were also FRAUDULENTLY recording into a STATE GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT that the face-to-face observations were being done. That is at least one, if not more, Criminal Offense under the Texas Penal Code (TPC ΓΓ 37.10; 39.02; and 39.03). Instead of enforcing the laws of this state, Omar encourages and even protects the breaking of them. How many of these criminal offenses has Lucio brought forth for prosecution over the last 10 years? I am not aware of even a single one.
Given his track record of encouraging and protecting criminal activity within the jail, it is not surprising to see why Lucio has had so many problems with deputies breaking the law as well. Don’t forget about Captain Garza, or the deputy who also used his badge to allegedly rape a woman in Hidalgo County. Lucio tends to zealously protect deputies accused of rape. He did so in 2009 when a deputy was accused of rape by an undocumented female. According to her statement to police, the deputy pulled her over and becoming aware that she was undocumented, he raped her, then threatened to call CBP to deport her if she tried to report it to anyone. Before an investigation was
done, Lucio immediately attacked and discredited the victim, while at the same time defending his deputy.
Lucio believes people are ignorant about the law and don’t care about what happens to the average person, much less those in the county jail. Lucio cares more about the institutions and offices of Cameron County than the PEOPLE those instructions and offices were designed to represent. We may disagree about who should replace Lucio, but we all agree that change is most definitely needed and deserved. Everyone wants this to be The End of Omar Lucio…
De Oppresso Libre,
Randall BolΓvar
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